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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Why Chris Huhne IS Guilty…

There’s one thing we know Huhne IS guilty of – and that’s his horrendous media management against the backdrop of allegations in the Sunday papers that he forced his wife to take points for speeding. The headlines were inflamed further when it was revealed his estranged wife Vicky Pryce was the one who taped him, ouch. To top it off, the nationals also carried stories yesterday reporting that during the incident in question, Pryce was at a posh economists’ dinner in the city centre and would have had to be superwoman to get there in time to get snapped by the speed camera. Yet Huhne stands by his story. The one thing we can deduce from this whole fiasco is someone is telling porky pies, the question is – who?

So how does one respond to such devastating allegations to limit the damage? We spoke to Daniel Hamilton, Director of Big Brother Watch this morning who seemed equally concerned about Huhne’s performance, “From a media relations perspective, his statement refuting the allegations was a disaster. Delivered at break-neck speed in a dimly lit corridor, Huhne's washed-out appearance served only to communicate to the public the level of stress and discomfort he was in.”

“It was about as far from the type of upbeat, defiant and self-confident performance politician convinced of his own innocence would have turned in as possible,” he added.

Indeed, Mr Huhne’s performance did have somewhat of a ‘dead man walking’ tone to it, whether that was his intention of now. It’s also noticeable that David Cameron appears to be swiftly distancing himself from the whole sorry mess. We’ll end by echoing a final note from Hamilton’s comments, which hit the nail squarely on the head. “It's no longer a question of if Huhne will go - but how long it's going to take. Do yourself, your (erstwhile) supporters and your family a favour, Chris - and resign".